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Friday, April 22, 2016

Emergency Responders Map the Fort Thomas Trails

A map of the Tower Park Trails was created by emergency responders. Click on image to see larger.

by Michele Pam Wright

What happens when you’re hiking on a trail and you need help? You call 911 of course. But what do you tell them when they ask for an exact location?

A group of emergency responders hope to solve that problem. They’d like to place markers on the trails and create a map so that injured hikers can be reached as soon as possible.

They’ll create the map using Global Positioning Services (GPS) and a Geographic Information System (GIS). Once the map is completed they’ll be able to access the map on the computer. The map they’ve been using has some trail markers, but not GPS coordinates.RELATED: Fort Thomas Gets To Work Celebrating Earth Day (4/22 and 4/23)

Chris Rust, a Fort Thomas firefighter said, “The plan is to start with Fort Thomas, but eventually expand to the rest of Campbell County. The maps will not only show the trail markers but other physical markers that hikers may be familiar with. It will also show the quickest way for emergency responders to get to callers.”

A subset of the map. Click on image to see larger. FTM file.

Rust went on to say, “Ideally, this map will be available to Fort Thomas residents as well so that not only will they become aware of the trail markers, but they can use it to navigate.”

I’m sure many Fort Thomas residents would like to be able to access these maps since the Tower Park trails have a lot of switchbacks (I’m still trying to find that darn shark log. If you hike down the gravel road by the basketball court, there is a loop trail to the right on the other side of the creek from the gravel road. The shark is on the lower part of this loop.)

According to Rust, the meeting will include Jeff Mohr, who is an integral planner of the Earth Day trail improvement weekend every year; Mark Bailey, the chief of the Fort Thomas Fire Department; Dale Edmondson, former chief of the Fort Thomas Fire Department and now the Director of Campbell County Consolidated Dispatch Center; a representative of Cincinnati Off Road Alliance (CORA); a representative from the Campbell County Conservation District, and himself.

The meeting is this Tuesday on April 26th at the Fort Thomas Fire Department at 11 a.m.

A similar map was created by resident, Mike Lehrter. Click on image to see larger. FTM file.